Reich Marshal of the Belkan Reich

RM Vol 2: National Development – Chapter 22: Steps toward the future

Putting down the signed document from Yuki, Mobius can't stop herself from sporting an insane grin, yet, she deflates mere seconds later.

"So Yuki gave her blessing?" Einstein, who was placing down a tray of milk tea, saw the papers and asked. Mobius nods, prompting the blue hair Doctor to say. "You sure you want to follow this through with your current mindset?"

Sighing with a hand ruffling her own hair, Mobius answers with an annoyed face, more to herself though. "I must! I've come this far to get cold feet and with Yuki counting on the result of my program, I won't let myself be disheartened by my newfound compassion..."

Sighing, Mobius continues. "Though I guess with this compassion, there will be no room for fatal error, at least. Worst case scenario, they will have to sleep for a few years till we have the tech to patch them up."

Passing Mobius who is now gazing at the brown reinforced ceiling with a dazed look, Einstein comments. "You've surely mellowed out, Mobius. Were it in the past, you wouldn't hesitate to experience on live subjects without care. We could only lessen the impact on your reputation by sending you criminals to test on, but now..."

Einstein chuckles as she passes Mobius her cup of milk tea. "I guess Yuki and Ningyo have put a leash on the mad scientist."

Rolling her eyes, Mobius refuses to comment but does take a drink from the warm tea Einstein prepared. The pair continues drinking, taking a break from their respective research until Nicolae appears next to them. The blonde is still as fashionable as ever in her purple dress. Having familiarised herself with the Doctors here, Nicolae picks up her own cup of milk tea before gazing at Mobius's messy work table.

"Oh. So we're cleared to have a go at improving humankind's baseline before marrying them to the magitech suit, neat!" The Shoggoth's cheery voice failed to betray any hesitation she had. The monumental project they have at hand is just another Tuesday for Nicolae had she decided to go all-out.

"Also, nice tea, by the way." Nicolae didn't forget to give her a compliment.

"Thanks, though it was mostly due to Yuki providing the Mansion with a variety of great ingredients." Einstein humbly responded.

Giving a nod at Einstein, Nicolae then asks the pair. "So, when will we begin?"

Einstein replies. "That depends on Mobius, I already have twenty suits at the ready."

"We still need to set up a proper stasis chamber. Have to work on the magic formations and all that." Mobius added with a hand under her chin.

"Oh, right. You will be using a mix of time manipulation and cryogenic technology, no?" Nicolae asked with a thoughtful expression. "If that's the case then if the test subject is experiencing trauma, you can put the operating pod they're in under an isolated time lock. Unlike standard cryogenic pods, the stasis pod reduces the issues with the water in a person's body crystallizing during the freeze and shredding cell membranes in the body. It's overall much safer but also hoards more power." Nicolae spoke a bit of her knowledge.

Mobius nods, saying.

"That's right since we all agree to experiment on willing subjects that are helpful to the Reich, we can't, in good conscience, have them passed away on us. It's thanks to Yuki dedicating a Void Reactor for us scientists to use so that we can go all out on ensuring that. The stasis chamber should be up in a week or so, the progress is wholly dependent on how many pods we want to have."

Hearing that, Einstein turns to Nicolae. "Can you give us an estimate?"

Nicolae nods, morphing her hand into a purple tentacle before changing its form many times speedily for fun.

"Well, with the imperfect serum taken into account and the number of times I exploded or crippled in previous tests, I can safely guarantee that of the ten volunteers, seven to eight can withstand the pain without any trauma. With the serum working on enhancing every single aspect of the physical body, I would say that the procedure has a surprisingly high 75% success rate and, with timely intervention, no mortality rate."

Mobius nods, sighing in relief that her mental calculation was sound. "I figured as such, though I guess there won't be any harm if we build a few more pods."

"I see, so should we put the first run about two weeks later? It will also take some time to get the volunteers situated, after all." Einstein gave her suggestion to which Nicolae nodded while Mobius shrugged.

"Sure, till then, we can do whatever we want." Rolling her eyes, Mobius adds. "Only Yuki knows just how much stuff she has been throwing at us."

Nicolae and Einstein chuckle. "Well, if it wasn't for the new computers, I don't think we can handle working on multiple projects at the same tie, even with Ningyo's help."

Mobius asks after hearing their names. "Speaking of them, what are they doing right now?"

Einstein places a finger on her chin, answering. "Well, if it's Ningyo, she should still be putting on that visor, hard at work simulating the experiments we can't compute." Sighing, Einstein adds. "Yggdrasil knows where she gets that trait from, being such a hard worker."

Nicolae chuckles. "From Yuki, who else? As for our dear Marshall, she should be overseeing a naval drill or something along that line."

"Naval drill?" Mobius ponders for a moment before putting a fist on her palm. "Right! The Reichsmarine 1st Carrier Strike Group is scheduled for one today!"

Raising an eyebrow at Mobius's enthusiasm, Einstein comments. "You never peg me for one with an interest in the navy."

Rolling her eyes, Mobius responds with her hands waving.

"I'm not a mechanical geek like you, Einstein, but I do know when to appreciate a proud achievement made by a collective group of passionate people. Like, have you ever seen a vessel as majestic as the Yggdrasil with the matching capability?"

Nodding at Mobius's words, Einstein replies. "Point taken."

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"Left, 25 degrees!" Admiral Donitz ordered.

The helmsman quickly responds with an. "Aye aye, sir!" As his hands quickly spun the helm to the pre-designated heading.

"Tower, send them up." Donitz ordered the air boss. The air officer gave an affirmative yes before she, alongside the miniboss, starts conducting the launch of the Yggdrasil-based air wings.

Pulling on the mental list of what they will be doing today, Yuki appraised look at how the crew is working on the carrier. The strike group is scheduled to conduct high-speed formation maneuvering, ASW drills, and launch and recovery of air wings. After a week on the sea, they're now at the latter stage of the third part, which involves live-firing exercises of the air wings on dummy targets.

Incidentally, the 1st Carrier Strike Group consisted of:

• Strike leader: the aircraft carrier Yggdrasil which is also the name giver of her class.
• Sub-leader: the battlecarrier Mainz of the Bayern-class.
• Two Hindenburg-class heavy cruisers: The Yorck and the Emden.
• Three Munchen-class light cruisers: The Munchen, the Hermelin, and the Dresden.
• Three Elbing-class destroyers: the Gaede, the Maass, and Schultz.
• Two Nassau-class submarines: the Kassel, and Jena
• Three auxiliary vessels.

Since there are two carriers, only the Yggdrasil and the Mainz are on duty for launching their air wings. The rest can just kick back and watch the air show. And since the priority of jet aircraft allocation is given to the navy, more than half of the combat aircraft on the Yggdrasil are the Phantoms. The rest being Skyraiders and armed Ospreys. The Mainz is different for her combat aircraft consisted of Harriers and Ospreys instead.

Under the precise coordination of the now experienced air officers, the two carriers swiftly prep their aircraft for take-off with for CAP and anti-ship duty. Yuki nods at the Admiral, or more precisely, the Grand Admiral, before they leave the command of the vessel back into the hand of her Captain, heading outside to enjoy the spectacle.

Handlers in blue jerseys will move the aircraft through the hangar by tractor trailers, onto the giant elevators, and bring them up the deck. It takes less than ten minutes for the previously emptied flight deck to house twenty aircraft: 10 Phantoms for CAP and anti-ship, 5 Skyraiders for low-altitude torpedo attack, and 5 Ospreys for ASW patrols, electronic warfare, and CSAR.

Once the Handlers wearing blue have made sure the aircraft are in place for prepping, they vacate the area on their tractors, leaving the red shirts to handle the weapon. Through a small elevator, bombs and missiles of all sorts would be brought up the deck and stored in a small section next to the Island, aptly named 'the Bomb Farm'. The red jerseys will check the integrity of the weapons and proceed to load them up.

Once done, the purple jerseys come in to make sure the aircraft's mana batteries are full and plug their drop tanks up, filling them with liquid mana.

After that, they’re linked up with their respective pilots, ending the prep work after five minutes, the whole process took only that long, surprisingly.

With the Yggdrasil having four mana-powered electromagnetic catapults, the Aircraft directors in yellow will herald the first four Phantoms to their respective catapults.

Catapult operators in green jerseys will then make sure that the jet is locked properly onto the catapult’s shuttle, and that the catapult is set to the weight of the aircraft. As a precaution, inspectors and safety observers in white scan the aircraft and the flight deck to ensure that everything is safe for launch.

The Jet Blast Deflectors are raised. These will ensure that the hot jet wash won't kill anyone standing behind it.

The ‘Shooter’, or the Catapult Officer in yellow jersey will see whether everything is fitted where it’s supposed to be by voting. When the green jerseys give a thumb up, saying that the catapult is hot, the white jerseys give a thumb up verifying everything is good, the Catapult Officer will do this cool pose that had earned this position the nickname ‘Shooter’: Crouching and leaning on one of their feet, the other spread outward horizontally, while one arm tucks behind their back, the other makes a gesture of shooting a gun at the angle where the aircraft is launching. With the signal given, the Catapult operators punch it and send the catapult forward, and along with it, the aircraft.

With the first Phantom launched off the carrier successfully, the next one follows seconds later. After that, the third and fourth are launched at the same interval. Once the third and fourth Phantoms are launched, the next set of aircraft is already hooked to the first and second catapult. While all that is happening, the Ospreys are taking off vertically from the aft section of the Yggdrasil. From further away, you can also see Mainz's complement of aircraft doing much the same with their Harriers and Ospreys.

Half an hour later, the sky is filled with Belka's finest engineering.

"Truly a sight one has to see in their lifetime." Grand Admiral Donitz commented. "I will never get bored seeing it."

Nodding, Yuki answers as she gazes into the formation of Phantoms and Harriers high above the cloud. "The same can be said for me."

"Up next will be the testing of the new anti-ship missile. I trust that the tugboats have made sure that the targets are in position?" Yuki asked Donitz.

The Grand Admiral nods. "That they did, Marshal." Stopping for a bit, he can't help but comment a bit wistfully. "I've never thought that the era of cannons and battleships will be ending this fast."

"Shocking, isn't it? To engage beyond the visual range of your target, only a click of a button away." Yuki added. "The Airforce is currently pioneering the usage of missiles, either with their short-range heat-seeking Iris missile or medium to long-range semi-active radar-guided Falcon missile. Applying the same principle as the AA missiles but supersizing them for anti-ship duty, we now have the experimental Kormoran anti-ship missile, guided by a shorter-range infrared-seeker or a longer-range semi-active radar-guided detector. With the latter being used, the Kormoran can effectively engage an enemy warship some 40 km away without any of them knowing. Of course, the accuracy of these anti-ship missiles is untested, so it will be quite a long while till they are combat capable and ready to fit on our vessels. Say what you want but try to format them for anti-ship duty is more complex than just killing an aircraft."

Sighing, Donitz responds. "Woe be the days when our enemy is attacked by Heaven itself. Fortunately for them, they won't be facing its wrath in two to three years at least."

"That's right, though they should count their lucky stars while they still can. Also, take a look at this." Yuki pulled out a folder, tucked in her jacket. "There still isn't much on it yet but the latest intel on Japan's shipping industry gave us something to look at."

Receiving the folder, Donitz takes a cursory look at it before his eyebrows raise up in shock. "A battleship of nearly 73000 tons at full load!? Has the Jap gone mad? I thought they were increasing their funding into constructing aircraft carriers."

"I know right? For a country lacking in resources, they sure dream big." Yuki snickered before saying. "The reason for the sudden shift in priority was due to our sinking of the Bearn and us constructing new battleships. Coupled with misinformation about our actual strength, the Japanese have decided to fund the construction of the Yamato and Musashi instead."

"From what I can see though, even with them having a much larger displacement and bigger guns, I don't think they will stand a chance against our Bismarck-class. Not with them being much obsoleted in electronics and fire control. Are we expecting them to improve on those aspects?"

Yuki shakes her head at the question. "Not when the whole world is being secretive and somewhat disparaging the use of radar. Of all the major powers in the world, only we and Erusea seem to be developing the field further. Regardless, that 18-inch gun will spell trouble if it manages to land a hit, accuracy is damned or not."

"In a one-on-one engagement, Bismarck can utilize her faster speed and longer range to kite away at the enemy. With the Bismarck having a smaller radar signature than comparable warship and if we play our cards right, I don't think the Yamato can even see her at all." Donitz hypothesized.

"Reality does differ from fiction though." Yuki commented. "With us having carriers at our disposal, why bother matching up for a gunfight when missiles can do the job? Of course, it will take some time for missiles to be in the play but you get my idea. Even without them, I doubt the Yamato can stave off supersonic jets dropping off bomb after bomb. Or we can just use our battleships to lure the Jap in for a decisive engagement before sending in aircraft in an alpha strike, crippling the Yamato and her escorts before bombarding the survivors with the 17-inch. Either way, they will sink."

Stopping for a bit, Yuki shrugs. "But what do I know, I never went to a naval academy."

Donitz and Yuki share a laugh, knowing that what they discussed earlier was just unconfirmed theory intel. That matter is best left for another day.

Moments later, Yuki can see a fast-moving object, leaving behind a trail of white smoke, slam into a faraway dummy ship. That target explodes into debris and burning rubbles, signaling the first successful hit of the Kormoran missile. Yet, the joy from Donitz and the crew is short-lived for the other four missiles are utterly missing their stationary targets.

With a twitching eyebrow, Donitz facepalms before saying. "Well, you did say experimental for a reason. They will be needing much fine-tuning after this test."

Yuki laughs, not disheartened by the failures, patting the Grand Admiral's shoulder. "See, maybe you can live your dream of having a battleship slugfest, after all."

At least the other exercises succeed, the homing torpedoes on the Skyraiders worked while the Ospreys carried out their mission perfectly. Most notably the jammer-equipped Ospreys managed to cripple the entire 1st Carrier Strike Group for a whole ten minutes. This raises a major red flag for both Donitz and Yuki, hence, they will double down on training and improving the electronic warfare aspect for the military after their return to Belka. After all, any nation can effectively create an electronic warfare task force with limited investment, even if the concept is still new. And Belka better becomes the leading figure in that field or things will be bad.

Though not everything is smooth sailing at the end of the day. Donitz and Yuki are content that they did learn valuable insight into Belka's naval strength relative to the world.

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